MERCEDES-BENZ AIR BRAKE (Oct, 1955)

MERCEDES-BENZ AIR BRAKE
IN this year’s 24-hour Grand Prix at Le Mans, France, the West German Mercedes-Benz racing team demonstrated a sensational new braking device which, operating like an airplane’s landing flaps, helped slow the cars down from 150 mph to safe cornering speeds in a matter of seconds. The gadget, subject of much stormy discussion, supplemented the cars’ regular pedal-operated brakes, thus reducing dangerous “fade” caused by overheating.

Unfortunately that was the year Pierre Levegh crashed one into a grandstand. The resulting fire (the car had a lot of Magnesium in it) and casualties cause Mercedes to withdraw from Le Mans and shut down their racing program for decades.